Indian troops kill Pakistani soldier in Kashmir

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Indian troops killed a Pakistani soldier in the disputed territory of Kashmir late on Tuesday, the Pakistani army said, the fifth fatality in hostilities between the nuclear armed neighbors since the new year.

The soldier was killed at a position called Kundi during firing from the Indian side that began at 10 p.m. EST, Pakistan's army said in a statement.

Two Pakistani and two Indian soldiers were killed in early January in the worst outbreak of violence in Kashmir since the India and Pakistan agreed a ceasefire nearly a decade ago.

Government spokesmen on both sides have sought to play down the deaths and insisted they would not derail talks meant to improve relations between the two countries.

India and Pakistan have fought three wars since their independence in 1947, two of them over the Himalayan region of Kashmir.

India-Pakistan ties had improved after nose-diving in 2008 when gunmen killed 166 people in Mumbai in a three-day rampage India blamed on a Pakistani militant group.

Firing and small skirmishes are common along the internationally recognized 740-km (460-mile) Line of Control in Kashmir despite a ceasefire that was agreed in 2003.